Monthly Archives: October 2015

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The official team roster has still not been released for the US women’s team. However, podium training provided some insight into the final line-up. Generally, the order of competition in podiums translates to the first five to compete being the ones that will go in qualifications, with third – fifth being those that would compete in team finals. The sixth to go is the member of the team who will not compete on that event. The seventh is the alternate.

MyKayla Skinner was seventh on every event, so it seems clear at this point that she is the alternate. She had some of her best vaulting in podiums, bringing back a clean amanar, and causing many to wonder why she would not be up in vault. However, her other team final event would be floor, and she seems to have downgraded her difficulty while still have the leap and jump execution problems. This seems to be the most logical reason of having her as the alternate.

This would mean the final team is Brenna Dowell, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols, Madison Kocian and Simone Biles.

The order of competition in podium training was Raisman, Nichols, Douglas, Biles, Kocian, Dowell and Skinner. This is the line-up that was most confusing. It doesn’t make sense to bring Dowell and not use her on bars. So the most likely scenarios are one: Martha is still deciding which of the four all-arounders will not do bars and therefore not have the opportunity to qualify for the all-around. This scenario would mean that Dowell would have the opportunity to qualify for event finals. Or two: Dowell would not compete bars in qualifications, but then would be a part of the team finals line up. This scenario would allow the four all-arounders the chance to duke it out for all-around finals but not allow Dowell to qualify for bars finals.

In the past, it has usually seemed that Martha’s decisions are first team, second all-around, third event finals. If she stay’s true to form, this would mean scenario number one. Unless a clear number two and three all-around order emerged at camp, it is anyone’s guess who would take the number two all-around spot. It would just depend on who had the best day. Dowell has improved her execution score tremendously on bars, but in the past it has not been high enough for her to medal on the world stage. So I am going to pick scenario one, though I think it could really go either way.

For finals, Douglas beat Biles at nationals on bars by .15 each day. From podium line ups it seems that Biles would be in finals over Douglas. But that could change if Douglas does do bars in prelims and outscores her.

Prelims: Raisman, Nichols, Douglas, Biles, Kocian

Finals: Biles, Dowell, Kocian

Beam

Simone Biles on beam at the 2015 World Championships podium training. Photo by John Cheng via USA Gymnastics.

The order of competition in podium training was Kocian, Douglas, Nichols, Raisman, Biles, Dowell, and Skinner. Nichols had a few falls in podium training, so the lead off finals spot may be up in the air until after qualifications.

The order of competition in podium training was Douglas, Dowell, Nichols, Raisman, Biles, Kocian and Skinner. This line up seemed pretty solid.

Prelims: Douglas, Dowell, Nichols, Raisman, Biles

Finals: Nichols, Raisman, Biles

The other item of note if these line-ups are the final ones, is that Douglas would be the only member of the team not to compete in the team finals. Biles would do all four events, Raisman and Nichols would be on three, Dowell on two and Kocian on one. The final team roster should be announced at any time.